With the onslaught of Web 2.0 tools, how many ways can you be contacted? Overwhelmed, what do you do?

[Bill Graziadei, PhD (aka Dr. G)]

How many ways can you be contacted and which (top 3 in prioritized order) are the most prevalent?

For me it's/was over 40 with e-Mail, (AIM, Skype & Windows Live) and Plurk topping my list. Here's my list:

Face-to-Face
Landline Phone
Landline Fax
Mobile Phone (kept strictly for personal or real life)
Skype
AIM
Windows Live
Twitter
Plurk
Yahoo
Internet Voicemail
Internet Fax
Email - 5
Comments on my blog - 3
Facebook
MySpace
LMS/LCMS
Webconference - 3
Assorted Ning - 5 and other Web 2.0 social community and services - 12
Snail Mail

Overwhelmed? Do you get rid of a bunch of accounts and un-enroll in some groups in order to be efficient and not allow productivity drain? I just could not keep up anymore. So, as you can imagine from above, I had to cut back and focus on what was pertinent to me and my work. How do you filter? Which do you use and use effectively? What does this say about how "busy" we are? Learning? Sharing? Collaborating? Organizing? Skills? Doing "professional" work? Workflow? Other?

Click on Contact me... for the specifics about the above various ways I can be contacted as well as

[Helen Otway]

We certainly have lots of opporunities to make connections these days. It's how we manage them and what we make of them. I think my learning has grown exponentially in the last 12 months with the help of my online connections.
Just by the way, some of presenters at our conference presenters are from my PLN - professional learning network (online). And what a great group they are.
Helen

[Anne Mirtschin]

As I started 18 mths ago, and still feel like I have my L plates on, I have started too many blogs and online accounts. However, I concentrate on 4 blogs now (one is my personal travel one and the other three are educationally based), one wiki which is my filing cabinet, many collaborative wikis and nings with other global schools, my favourite ning for personal pd at classroom20.com, msn, four email accounts, twitter (id = murcha), plurk, skype, flashmeeting, facebook, linkedin, podomatic, slideshare etc. I try and email back all who comment on my blogs, to make connections and try and comment back on theirs as well. My students are involved in lots of global projects and I teach from years 2 to 12. As my surname is difficult to spell, I have a heap of different usernames...................and every now and then I take a big 'time out' from it all!!!!

[brettelockyer]

how much time can i devote to keeping in touch? if i am at my computer for too many hours the curved spine and weight gain kick in. can i set up my one blog so that i know who is communicating with me - all on the one page? still taking baby steps on this one.

[Bill Graziadei, PhD (aka Dr. G)]

Tania, ran into same problem as you see above. It's not as much of a problem now since I'm semi-retired. The best advice I can offer you is have a goal, objective(s) and most importantly a purpose and focus on what's important to these. Indeed, there are 100's of Web 2.0 tools, many of which are variants. Find the one(s) that work for you and your purpose and go with them. Ciao, Bill...

[Tania Sheko]

I've only recently entered the online world, so I have a manageable number of contact points:
face-to-face; landline phone; mobile phone; Twitter (only a few people I know contact me); email (currently trying to reduce from 3 to 2); comments on my blog (hardly anybody reads it); Facebook (not overwhelming); snail mail.
My contact points are manageable, but in trying to find out more about other applications, I've signed up for too many things and am having trouble keeping up with these. My RSS feeds and favourite blogs are too numerous, and I have them coming in all over the place. I need to tidy up!